Credits: IMAGO / NurPhoto
Martin Brundle has become a legend in F1 media owing to his famous grid walks and expert opinions for Sky Sports F1. As Sky Sports is the principal global broadcaster for Formula 1, Brundle’s grid walk interviews and his takes garner a lot of following and some criticism too at times. Naturally, even for a man of his experience, mistakes can happen. The Briton made one such major gaffe at the 2018 Chinese GP with the CEO of AMD, Lisa Su. Attending for Ferrari as one of the team’s sponsor representatives, Lisa interacted with Brundle and had an awkward interaction, something fans today are watching and not taking in the best taste.
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According to some resurfaced footage on Twitter (now X) from the 2018 race in China, when the 64-year-old pundit was on his grid walk, he approached Lisa Su and asked her, “Excuse me, ma’am. Do you speak English?”.
Upon this, Su gave a modest affirmative reply. Brundle deemed her as a “random person” he interacts with on the grid and asked her what she was doing on the grid.
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This was the major goof up and Lisa flexed her Ferrari association as the reason for her presence on the grid. She mentioned how she is the CEO of AMD, a multinational semiconductor and computer processor company. Su said, “We’re sponsoring the Ferrari car”.
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This made Brundle stutter a bit and he pointed out how she has several VIP access and paddock access passes. Thereon, the Sky Sports pundit mentioned how the secret of becoming a VIP on the F1 grid is to “become a sponsor of Ferrari”.
He said, “Good to meet you on the grid today! Sorry I randomly interrupted you on my gridwalk.”
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After the race though, the 64-year-old retweeted and closed off the loop with Lisa, as she posted about her Chinese GP visit. Naturally, one cannot blame Brundle for not knowing who Lisa Su was. Now, as this video is doing the rounds on social media. many fans are stating that he did not need to ask the question of whether she knew English or not.
How Martin Brundle has experienced some awkward celebrity interactions on his grid walk
While Martin Brundle was the one making a gaffe in China in 2018, he has also experienced some awkward moments with other celebrities. One such moment happened with Brad Pitt at the 2022 US GP.
Pitt was present at the Circuit of the Americas to research for his upcoming F1 feature film. So, when the Hollywood star was on the grid before the race, Brundle tried to approach him for an interview. This created an awkward moment between the two as Pitt tried to avoid an interaction with Brundle.
This enraged fans immensely on social media. Many opined how Pitt should have respected the Sky Sports pundit, who is also an F1 veteran driver. However, Pitt made things right when he interacted with Brundle in an exclusive feature video for Sky Sports F1 in 2023 at Silverstone.
The former McLaren driver has also experienced a similar incident with Megan Thee Stallion. She is an American rapper who attended the 2021 US GP. During the event, her bodyguards restricted Brundle from getting to her for an interview.
